The haiku is a Japanese verse of three lines and 17 syllables. Or 300 lines and 1700 syllables if you write 100 haiku. No small decision, as Kelly Higgins-Devine learnt halfway into her marathon, pledging to crank out a haiku a day β over 100 days.
Why, you ask? Fair to say, Kelly asked the same question after Haiku #62, or whenever she hit the wall. But ABC Brisbaneβs Evenings host persevered, knowing her listeners were rolling their own Sisyphean boulders. Since that was the deal. Everyone choosing a goal and sticking to the pledge as best they could.
For Tara the truckie, it was a daily drawing. For John-Boy, in downtown Munruben, he wore a different outfit each morning. Others such as Kingaroyβs Cath sent a daily letter. Every quest was personal, including Kellyβs Haiku #71: βItβs so very cold/ I need a doona at night/ Slippers on my feet.β Week by week, the 100-day haul drew people closer. Down in Victoria, where doonas are more numerous, and their tog rating higher, my own Evenings show stole Kellyβs idea. With a twist. Since producer Tima Halloum and I agreed that 100 days seem like 70 days too many, seeing us pick August instead. Name a pledge, we dared listeners. Choose a new habit or drop an old one. Tell us your grail. Letβs do this together.
All-In August was subsequently hatched, the name conjured by Plugger in Tatura. Dozens jumped in. Then scores. At last count, 60 listeners plus on-air regulars are holding their nerve. Whether thatβs Megsy and her five-veggie regimen, or Dr Dave Watson, whoβs learning a new knot each lunchtime. Julie is dodging skincare as Nick drums in Ballarat. Meanwhile, Dax is chatting with three strangers a day, and he doesnβt even work on a helpline.
Firefighter Tanya is climbing 30 flights of stairs a week, preparing for Septemberβs fundraiser in which crews climb Crown Hotel in full hazard gear. For a high-rise tenant phobic of lifts, stairs are part of life. Yet, Tanya lives in Strathbogie, where skyscrapers are few. Hence, her pilgrimage to the local gym plus a weekly clamber up Mount Wombat.
Instead of haiku, I picked postcards, a reader-focused riff of random syllables with stamp and picture. Thirty-one cards to 31 different addressees. Make that several cards a day to 80 recipients, as listeners kept giving postal details, and I kept scribbling. Just like the old days, when posting meant cards and letters, not your Insta feed.
A custom to restore, perhaps. Four sleeps from the finish, Iβve seen how the gesture of ink and image has reverberated. Including one listener Iβll call Billy, who replied: βYour Herculaneum card [part of my job-lot purchase at an op-shop] has moved me β and reminds me of how powerfully my PTSD and depression βremovesβ me from participating. The postcard has encouraged me to get more involved in my community.β Something Billy has done, all thanks to a volcano photo with hello on the flipside.
If anything, All-In August has made connection a real thing. A sustained and simple action. Why not All-In Any Month? To summarise the impact via haiku: A borrowed whim turns/ Into antidote making/ 60 strangers one.
David Astle is the crossword compiler and Wordplay columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is a broadcaster on ABC Radio Melbourne.